Industry Organizations

The U.S. Senate on Thursday passed a long-term reauthorization bill for highway and transit programs after first approving a three-month extension of funding for the Highway Trust Fund through Oct. 29. Funding was scheduled to expire at the end of Friday and the HTF was expected to go into the red without an $8 billion infusion from the government through the transfer of certain fees tied to other federal programs to supplement gas tax collections. The House passed ...

The European Commission has entered the second phase of its review of FedEx’s proposed $4.8 billion offer to acquire all the shares of TNT Express. This is the step during which the European Commission will conduct an in-depth analysis under the EU merger regulations before coming to a decision. The transaction is also under review by other antitrust agencies, such as China’s Ministry of Commerce and Brazil’s Conselho Administrativo de Defesa Econômica. “We will con...

Matson, Inc. has reached a settlement with the state of Hawaii to resolve all civil, criminal and administrative claims related to the discharge of molasses into Honolulu Harbor from a pipeline break in September 2013. The ocean carrier said in a statement it will provide $11.4 to $15.4 million to Hawaii through a combination of cash, restoration and funding of environmental programs. Under the settlement, Matson will: Pay $5.9 million to the state as compensation for damag...

Philip Seng, president and chief executive officer of the U.S. Meat Export Federation, warned that the United States is rapidly falling behind its competitors as China continues to shut out U.S. beef exports. China closed its market to U.S. beef in 2003, following a case of a cow with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), a brain-wasting disease capable of being transmitted to humans through the consumption of the infected cow’s meat. “At that time, and for ...

World Trade Organization members on Friday agreed on a landmark update to an 18-year-old agreement governing tariffs on technology products. The agreement, however, will not yet go into effect because a handful of WTO members have yet to ratify the deal, leaving it short of the required quorum. The update to the Information Technology Agreement would add 201 high-tech products to a list of goods free from duties and tariffs. The update is intended to reduce the pric...

United States gross domestic product (GDP) expanded at an annual rate of 2.3 percent in the second quarter of 2015, according to Wednesday’s estimate from the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis. Commerce attributed the acceleration in U.S. economic growth to positive consumer, state, and local government spending, increased exports, and a deceleration of imports which were partly offset by federal government spending, private inventory investment, and nonreside...

A six-year-old U.S. trade program that allows Dominican Republic apparel manufacturers that use U.S. fabric to produce certain apparel to earn a credit, which can then be used to ship eligible apparel made with non-U.S.-produced fabric into the United States duty free, continues to fall short, according to the U.S. International Trade Commission. “Six years after the implementation of the Earned Import Allowance Program (EIAP), the government of the Dominican Republic and U.S. a...

The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a $8 billion bill to fund and extend the authorization for federal surface transportation programs through the end of October. The three-month extension comes two days before the current authorization expires, which would force states to stop new construction projects and the Department of Transportation to curtail non-essential work. The short-term transportation bill forces the hand of the Senate, which is tryi...

The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) last week sanctioned Singapore-based Senat Shipping for the company’s alleged involvement with a North Korean firm that was caught smuggling illegal weapons in 2013. The containership Chong Chon Gang, operated by North Korean Ocean Maritime Management Company (OMMC), was seized by Panamanian authorities for carrying a shipment of undeclared arms from Cuba under a load of sugar. In a statem...

A group of 18 congressman, led by Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., has asked the White House’s trade representative Michael Froman to ensure that trade capacity building and enforcement are part of any trade agreement negotiations, such as the ongoing Trans-Pacific Partnership. Blumenauer said his legislation, the STRONGER (Supplemental Trade Review, Oversight, Noncompliance and General Enforcement Resources) Act, would establish an enforcement trust fund, “paid for by foreign expo...

The Federal Emergency Management Agency on Tuesday allocated $100 million for port security grants, part of a $1.6 billion distribution of federal money for homeland security purposes. The New York City Police Department got 10 percent of the available funds, while the Port of Long Beach was the next highest recipient with almost $3.4 million. FEMA is a sub-agency of the Department of Homeland Security. Port security grants are part of the federal gover...

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration will provide $500,000 to support a feasibility study for the design, construction, and operation of a high-speed passenger ferry powered by hydrogen fuel cell technology and a hydrogen refueling station The fuel cell would provide power for the ferry’s propulsion and auxiliary electrical systems, while the hydrogen refueling station - which would be the largest in the world - would service the ferry, electric cars, ...

Foreign Trade Ministers from each of the 12 nations involved in the Trans-Pacific Partnership began talks Tuesday in Maui, Hawaii and hope to have a finalized agreement by the end of the week, but this may be easier said than done. Although progress has been made, a wide variety of issues remain on the table for negotiators of the massive free trade agreement including protections for labor, the environment and human rights, disagreements over how to handle agricultural commodit...

The Senate approved legislation Monday to reopen the Export-Import Bank, which was defunded last month when its authorization expired. Senate leaders plan to attach the Ex-Im Bank legislation to a six-year surface transportation bill championed by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., that includes about $47 billion in budget offsets to supplement the Highway Trust Fund over three years. The current extension of highway and transit programs, along with funding, expires on July...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has made several changes to its dairy tariff-rate import quota licensing program, effective Sept. 1. Among the program changes, USDA will suspend the historical license reduction provision, currently set to expire at the start of 2016, for an additional seven years. “This change will allow license holders to adjust to changing market conditions affecting the dairy sector,” USDA said in a statement. The department said it will also ...

The U.S. Census Bureau announced Monday new orders for manufactured durable goods in June increased 3.4 percent to $235.3 billion, following decreases of 1.5 percent in April and 2.1 percent in May. Transportation equipment orders, which had also fallen for two consecutive months, were a primary driver in the overall growth, increasing 8.9 percent to $78.4 billion. The bureau noted that excluding transportation equipment orders, total durable goods only increased 0....

Three Texas cities have offered to donate resources for infrastructure improvements designed to improve the flow of commercial trucks at international ports of entry on the Mexico border. U.S. Customs and Border Protection said it has tentatively selected the cities of Donna, El Paso and Pharr for an alternative program aimed at allowing communities to help fund facility, technology and infrastructure needs that can facilitate trade and travel. Record increases in passenger and ...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., continued pushing over the weekend to get a long-term transportation bill through the Senate before funding infrastructure aid to states expires on Friday. And he is using the controversial Export-Import Bank reauthorization as a sweetener to get a deal done, according to politics web site Politico . Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who is looking to run for President, called McConnell a liar on the Senate floor Friday for privately den...

The Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday approved three amendments designed to further open trade with Cuba. The amendments, part of the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations bill that covers the Treasury and Judiciary departments, among others, were added at the behest of senators from farm states with constituents who have an interest in expanding agricultural exports to the island nation. President Obama this year has re-opened diplomati...

California Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom has declared a state of emergency for Riverside, San Bernardino, Los Angeles, San Diego, Imperial and Kern Counties Wednesday as heavy rains and flooding continue to pound the southern portion of the state. Flood waters Sunday caused the collapse of a 30-foot section of an Interstate 10 bridge overpass just east of Indio, Calif. Newsom ordered the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) to “formally request immediate a...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday agreements with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and port terminal operators will cut harmful air pollution. Under the agreements, the Port Authority, APM Terminals North America, Maher Terminals and Port Newark Container Terminals will reduce truck idling at the port of Newark and take other actions to reduce harmful air pollution from diesel exhaust. The Port Authority’s actions will include provi...

U.S. Sens. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., and John Hoeven, R-N.D., introduced legislation Thursday that they say addresses the World Trade Organization’s ruling against current U.S. country-of-origin labeling. The senators said their proposed 2015 Voluntary Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) and Trade Enhancement Act would comply with the WTO ruling by removing certain meat products from the mandatory labeling program, satisfying concerns of both Canada and Mexico. Additionally, the l...

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at the Miami seaport seized 2,167 counterfeit televisions from China that were destined for the mid-west. The televisions had a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $610,400. The top five origin countries for counterfeit goods seized in fiscal 2014 were China, Hong Kong, Canada, India and the United Arab Emirates. CBP seized over 23,000 counterfeit goods worth an estimated $1.2 billion in fiscal 2014.

Debate continued in the Senate Thursday on a multi-year surface transportation bill that would fund investment in highway, bridge and transit infrastructure, but it’s path to enactment is unclear. Even if it passes, there appears to be strong opposition in the House to some of the mechanisms used to pay for the infrastructure and safety programs managed by the Department of Transportation. The problem, in the eyes of lawmakers who want to increase the gas tax or find another sus...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., got a big win Wednesday when the Senate agreed by a 62-36 vote to begin debate on a six-year bill to reauthorize surface transportation programs for infrastructure investment and safety. One of McConnell’s goals is to showcase Republicans’ ability to effectively govern ahead of next year’s election and he is trying to enact a long-term bill before current funding expires on July 31. The House, however, last week approved a five-mont...

PierPass Inc. is marking the 10-year anniversary of its OffPeak Program, which established regular night and Saturday work shifts at the Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach. While the program, which was created by terminal operators in the two ports to ease traffic congestion and reduce pollution, is being praised by local officials, Mario Cordero, the chairman of the Federal Maritime Commission, is pressing terminal operators to justify a recently announced increase in P...

Three family members were indicted for their alleged involvement in a scheme to defraud Miami-area lenders and the U.S. Export-Import Bank, the Justice Department said in a statement Tuesday. Guillermo M. Sanchez, 60, Isabel C. Sanchez, 36, and Gustavo Giral 38, all of Cutler Bay, Fla., are charged in the indictment with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering and money laundering. According to the indictment, from 2007 thr...

The Federal Maritime Commission will allow the Port of Seattle and Port of Tacoma to move forward with their plan to form the Northwest Seaport Alliance. The alliance will go into effect, as scheduled, on July 23. The FMC said its unanimous decision "is based on a determination that the agreement is not likely at this time, by a reduction in competition, to produce an unreasonable increase in transportation cost or an unreasonable reduction in transportation service...

The U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security on Tuesday implemented the State Department secretary’s removal of Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism. The move was in response to the recent actions taken by the Obama administration to reestablish diplomatic relations with Cuba. The Commerce regulatory revisions , which are published in the Federal Register , eliminate references in the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) to Cuba as ...

The Canadian government has concluded negotiations with Israel this week to expand a free trade agreement already in place between the two countries. The enhanced FTA will expand market access for Canadian agricultural, fish and seafood products through the reduction or elimination of Israeli tariffs on a large number of products, and duty-free access under tariff rate quotas for certain products. In addition to the increased market access of goods, other aspects of...

With 10 days to go until funding for highway and transit programs runs out, Senate leaders on Tuesday presented a multi-year surface transportation bill to extend funding for highway and transit programs. But a motion to proceed with debate was defeated because Democrats claimed they hadn’t been given enough time to read the details of the 1,030-page document unveiled that morning as part of a deal between Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. Barbara Boxer, the ranking Democrat on the En...

The logistics and global trade solutions provider Descartes Systems Group has acquired the denied party screening data and solutions provider MK Data Services LLC for $76.3 million. Columbia, Md.-based MK Data is considered a leading provider in the denied party screening solutions market, a niche the company has focused on while other compliance-oriented software companies have expanded into other strategic areas of trade compliance, transportation and logistics. The company ha...

The European Commission has fined German logistics provider Schenker, a Deutsche Bahn subsidiary, and Express Interfracht (EXIF), part of the Austrian railway company Österreichische Bundesbahnen, a combined 49.15 million euros (U.S. $53.23 million) for price fixing on their joint "Balkantrain" and "Soptrain" services in Europe. The Balkantrain service connects Western and Central Europe with Southeast Europe, while the Soptrain line provides a direct link between Central Europe...

The Federal Railroad Administration has launched a comprehensive safety review of the New York & Atlantic Railway’s safety culture and compliance management practices following a July 8 accident involving a truck in Queens, N.Y. The New York & Atlantic Railway, owned by Anacostia Rail Holdings, is a short-line freight railroad the serves Long Island from New York City. The review will cover railroad operations, engineer and conductor certification, locomotiv...

A Burlington Northern Santa Fe train carrying crude oil derailed last Thursday on the railroad’s main track at Culbertson, Mont., approximately 45 miles west of Williston, N.D. BNSF said in a customer advisory note it received a preliminary report of the derailment of its U-TNDAWA0-10 train at 8:05 p.m. EST on July 16, and the main track was subsequently reopened to normal operations at 1:01 a.m. on July 18. Despite the track being open to normal traffic, the railwa...

The World Trade Organization’s Information Technology Agreement was expanded last week to include additional tariff cuts on high-tech trade. “We are confident that all parties will now give formal approval to their participation in what would be the first tariff-elimination deal at the WTO in 18 years,” said Michael Froman, U.S. trade representative and a lead negotiator at the ITA discussions in Geneva. Since the ITA went into force in 1997, global trade cover...

California Governor Jerry Brown has ordered development of an “integrated action plan” on freight transportation. Issued on Friday, Executive Order B-32-15 gives members of his administration until July 2016 to create a plan that “establishes clear targets to improve freight efficiency, transition to zero-emission technologies, and increase competitiveness of California's freight system.” Brown said the state’s freight transportation system “is responsible for one-t...

The National Transportation Safety Board said a 2013 incident in which a National Airlines Boeing 747 freighter crashed on takeoff from Bagram Airbase, Afghanistan, was caused by five large military vehicles it was transporting being “inadequately restrained.” As a result, one of the vehicles moved to the back of the plane, “crippling key hydraulic systems and damaging the horizontal stabilizer components, which rendered the airplane uncontrollable,” the agency said last week. T...

Companies that define people who work exclusively for them, and are under their control, as independent contractors rather than employees are “cheating” the system, U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez said in an interview Sunday. Those comments came just days after the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour division issued guidance to employers to clarify how to distinguish between classifying someone as an employee or independent contractor. “When I was in Maryland (as ...

Since the beginning of this year, ships operating in so-called Emission Control Areas—which include areas within 200 miles of the coast of the United States and Canada, Great Lakes, as well as the North Sea, Baltic and English Channel—have had to comply with the International Maritime Organization’s requirements to use fuel with a sulfur content not exceeding 0.1 percent or use other technology to reduce emissions to a similar level. The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) s...

Air Transport with Jon Ross With the U.S. Justice Department now querying the domestic airlines about passenger pricing, what’s that saying about history repeating itself? Well, this isn’t exactly replication, but the seemingly ongoing collusion/price-fixing/antitrust pattern of investigations by the department against the airline industry. Not even a decade ago, the Justice Department brought price-fixing cases against a handful of all-cargo carriers a...

President Obama announced July 1 that the United States and Cuba have agreed to establish embassies in their respective capitals, putting the two countries another step closer to normalizing relations. The announcement comes six months after President Obama began opening ties to the Communist island nation. "This is an historic step forward in our efforts to normalize relations with the Cuban government and people, and begin a new chapter with our neighbors in the Americas," Oba...

Trucks transporting wind turbine blades cause drivers to pause and admire their incredible size as they’re moved down the nation’s highway, but those thoughts quickly turn to annoyance when these truckloads snarl traffic in small towns and along narrow country roads. BNSF Logistics, a sister company of its namesake Class I railroad Burlington Northern Santa Fe, wants to minimize this logistics obstacle by taking as many wind turbine blades off the road as possible by railing the...

It does not come into effect until July 1, 2016, but the World Shipping Council and other organizations are reminding shippers that mandatory amendments to the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) will require, regardless of who packed their container, to verify and provide the container’s gross verified weight to the ocean carrier and port terminal representative prior to it being loaded onto a ship. The vessel and terminal operator are “required to us...

Representatives from the trade community are asking U.S. Customs and Border Protection to postpone the Nov. 1 deadline for mandatory filing of all customs entries in the new Automated Commercial Environment, because many companies won’t have integrated the new data requirements in their systems by then. In a letter to CBP Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske, dated June 26, the leaders of the Trade Support Network said the government and private sector are still in the process of develo...

The U.S. Export-Import Bank has been called a purveyor of “corporate welfare” and a “boondoggle,” but the federal government-backed institution has long proven a useful and secure financial tool for numerous small and midsized American companies who seek overseas buyers for their products. Is it perfect? No, nothing is. A lot more negative things could be said about our dysfunctional Congress, which permitted a small band of lawmakers to shutter the Ex-Im Bank—at least tem...

We don’t often think about how technology-driven trucking has become because most motorists—even those with a keen understanding of supply chain—tend to think of trucks motoring down the highway as blunt force objects. But modern big rigs are essentially computers with steering wheels. Their routes are planned with sophisticated software, their movements and emissions tracked by sensors, the delivery of their goods confirmed via mobile device applications. But all t...

Brad Brown has been promoted to vice president of information technology at Crowley Maritime . He will be responsible for the teams managing network infrastructure and operations, end-user support, voice and data communications, technology sourcing and delivery, information security, process engineering and business solutions. Brown joined Crowley in 2001. Waterways Council, Inc. has named Tracy R. Zea director of government relations, effective Aug. 4. Before joining WCI, he ...

The domestic parcel unit of FedEx Corporation lost an appeal earlier this week in a lengthy legal battle with over 500 FedEx Ground drivers in Kansas. The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a 2014 Kansas Supreme Court ruling that said the express carrier violated the Kansas Wage Payment Act by classifying drivers independent contractors and not employees. The decision comes just a few weeks after the company agreed to settle a similar driver misclassification case in Calif...

The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a five-month extension of the surface transportation program, which is scheduled to expire at the end of the month. The vote of 312 to 119 authorizes and finances highway and transit programs through the end of the year. Lawmakers said the short-term fix is necessary until a multi-year plan can be approved. It would inject $8 billion from the Treasury into the insolvent Highway Trust Fund and make the move deficit-neutral by ...

United States retail and food services sales in June dipped 0.3 percent to $442.0 billion compared to May, according to advance monthly sales estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Commerce. The Census Bureau said sales, which are adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, were up 1.4 percent compared to June 2014. Total sales from April 2015 through June 2015 increased 1.7 percent compare...

Wednesday's AS Daily story " House leaders propose 5-month extension for transport programs ," should have said the proposed short-term extension bill for the Highway Trust Fund is for five months, not six. The original story has been updated to reflect the correct information.

Two weeks. That’s how long before the Highway Trust Fund drops below its minimum balance and the U.S. Department of Transportation begins scaling back federal aid to states for road construction and bridge repair. On Tuesday, Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx warned transportation officials at the state level that the Federal Highway Administration will be unable to incur new obligations or reimburse their departments beginning Aug. 1, a day after the current extension for M...

The U.S. Commerce Department has released 19 new reports to help the country’s exporters identify potential overseas markets. As part of the International Trade Administration’s new Top Markets Series , each report ranks future export opportunities within a particular industry, providing commentary on opportunities, trends, and potential challenges facing U.S. companies. “From education exports to textiles and apparel, to aircraft parts, environmental technologies a...

The U.S. International Trade Commission on Tuesday determined that imports of certain Chinese tires for passenger vehicles and light trucks unfairly harm domestic producers. The Commerce Department previously determined that these tire imports are subsidized by the Chinese government and sold in the United States at less than fair market value. As a result of the ITC’s affirmative determinations, Commerce will now issue antidumping and countervailing duty orders on ...

The Federal Maritime Commission on Tuesday released a report on U.S. port congestion based on findings from four regional forums the commission held last fall as congestion crises swept through key containerized gateways on both coasts. The problem was particularly acute at West Coast ports, where operational issues were compounded by fractious longshore labor negotiations. The International Longshore and Warehouse Union and their employers, represented by the Pac...

U.S. District Court Judge Denise J. Casper has ruled that federal law precludes Massachusetts from regulating transportation rates, routes and services by requiring express delivery drivers to be company employees. Truck drivers have long argued that motor carriers have misclassified them as independent contractors and should instead treat them as full-time employees, a battle that has been playing out in courts across the country. FedEx Ground, for example, reached a tentative ...